Europe's main exchanges have reported sluggish levels of trading activity during March, just weeks after interdealer broker Icap blamed low volumes for its decision to drop its full service cash equities business, in a further sign of the challenges facing Europe's equities brokers.

The London Stock Exchange Group, which operates the UK and Italian primary markets, yesterday reported a 28% fall in average equities volumes during March, compared to the same month last year, to around 766,000 trades per day.